The four astronauts should reach the space station Saturday night, paving pave the way for next week's return of Butch Wilmore and Sunita "Suni" Williams, who grew up in Needham.

NASA launched replacements for two astronauts stuck on the International Space Station for nine months. The new crew includes military and former airline pilots from the US, Japan, and Russia. The returning astronauts will bring back Wilmore and Williams,

SpaceX and NASA have launched a mission to bring back US astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore from the International Space Station (ISS), where they have been stranded for nine months. The launch took place at 7:03 ET on Friday, with a Falcon 9 rocket carrying a Dragon spacecraft as part of the Crew-10 mission.

Astronauts Sunita Williams, who grew up in Needham, and Butch Wilmore have been living on the space station since June after the Boeing Starliner capsule they arrived on experienced issues while docking.

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from the National Aeronautic Space Agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Saturday, 4:33 AM with the Crew-10 onboard.

Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore should have been back to earth nine months ago. However, they have been orbiting the planet aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

The American space agency says NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 now is targeting no earlier than 7:03 pm on 14 March as the window for launch of the Transporter-13 mission.

Sunita Williams and Barry “Butch” Wilmore were meant to spend about a week in space. They’ve been stuck for nine months — but may soon be on their way home.

Indian-American astronaut Sunita Williams and her colleague Butch Wilmore have been aboard the International Space Station (ISS) for nine months, despite originally planning to stay for just eight days.